Stuck in Reverse
by Admiral Godunov
Summary: When familiarity spawns from coincidences that aren't what they seem. [larxene.demyx] [silence in a different light]
1. Chapter 1

He didn't know how he'd ended up in the dimly lit back alleyway, a woman he'd first met and spoken to for maybe five minutes pinned between him and the dingy wall of the nearest building, his hands roaming her smooth, pale flesh while their lips pressed together as though they were trying to meld into one being. He didn't know why he was in this strange, dark city where the sun never truly rose, when his memory clearly told him he was born and raised in some place far grungier; a tempestuous industrial wasteland. And he most certainly didn't know why this woman before him was so _familiar_, and not just in appearance... but the way she smelled, she tasted... that gasp she made as he entered her (when had their pants been removed...?) was _too_ familiar, as was the sudden watery feeling in his knees at the action. It was the strangest case of deja vu he'd ever recalled or heard of.

Another thing he didn't know was the woman he had pressed against the wall was feeling exactly the same way.

Though the rational thought in his mind had mostly veiled itself behind a thick, sudden, foggy layer of lust the instant before he'd lunged at her and pinned her to the wall, some part of his, perhaps guilty, conscious questioned his actions. Why was he so suddenly, and so violently attracted to this woman? And why was he now, for all intents and purposes, fucking her against a wall in a shady alleyway, when the only thing he knew about her was her name- Lucidia- that she had the most beautifully blue eyes he'd ever seen, and equally as stunning golden-red hair? But what might have been the most important question of all was... _why _was she letting him do it? She'd not put an ounce of resistance up, and in fact had fully accepted and returned his sudden advances as though whatever had suddenly possessed him also had an effect on her.

It had all began two, maybe three weeks ago, yeah, that was about right. He was dreaming, he must have been. The soft sounds of a guitar melody had drifted into his ears, and he instinctively walked through the strange, middle-gray space to find the source. It took him a few moments, but he'd found it, a mirror framed with strange, twisted vine-like designs in intertwining black and white. He approached the mirror carefully, watching as his own reflection walked forward to meet him. But there was something wrong there. The reflection was holding some sort of large blue instrument that he thought might have been a sitar, and when he glanced at his hand he held nothing. The hair was all wrong, too. He'd never shaved the sides of his head in his life, and spiking it up like that looked both ridiculous and somehow fitting at the same time. But... whatever was in the mirror _had _to be him: the eyes, the jaw line, the basic body shape was exactly as he remembered himself looking.

Carefully, he reached a hand out, and the reflection followed on cue. His fingers met something cool and smooth, glass. Then it had to be a mirror.

The illusion was shattered when the reflection crossed its arms and smirked at him. It spoke in his voice and not his voice all at once. "Hello, Ethan."

He screamed, jolting backwards and landing on the cold ground. The reflection didn't follow him, it just chuckled.

"You look scared! Stand up, I can't bite you."

Carefully doing as he was told, Ethan swallowed hard against the cold lump of fear lodged in his throat. The reflection shifted position slightly, wrapping its arms around the neck of the sitar and leaning on it. "How does it feel to be back?"

"... Back...?" Ethan tested, not sure if he could speak. He was surprised that he could.

"Yeah, back. Man, you have no idea how great this feels."

"... what feels?"

"A pulse, emotions, things like that," the reflection laughed, lightly running its fingers over the strings of the gaudy blue instrument.

Ethan shook his head, hard, surprised when it _hurt_. Wasn't there not supposed to be pain in dreams?

"Careful. I don't know how stable everything is yet," the reflection said, kneeling down before the glass separating them and pressing its palm into it.

"What... what's going on?" Ethan stuttered. He was afraid, something that hardly ever happened, but so far the dream had proven to be anything but.

"Let me ask you something first. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Uh... I was... taking a shortcut through the park on my way to the liquor store get some more booze. Man that party rocked... anyway, I'm just getting past the lake when the fucking _shadows_ jumped out and started chasing me. Something hit me and knocked me into the lake and... my chest hurt. Then I blacked out but... it feels like there should be more to the story," he pressed his palm to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut.

"That's because there is, but... the memories have to be withheld. Sorry, but our heart is too exhausted to fully take the brunt of them right now. It managed to keep us alive for this long, after all."

"...Us? Us who?" Ethan said, standing up to glare at his reflection. Now he wasn't so scared as he was angry. From somewhere in the distance, the low ringing of a large bell could be heard.

"Our speaking time's running out. Be a good boy, lay off the fucking booze or I swear I will ream you... I don't think I can save your ass again. And one more thing, Ethan. If you meet a woman named Lucidia, keep her close. She's more precious to you than you know. And me as well," the reflection said sternly, raising its voice as the bell got louder. The air around them began to crack, long fissures running through the very fabric of existence.

"What are you _talking _about?"

_**Time to wake up, Ethan.**_

The bell noise had become so loud he'd jolted upright, instantly regretting it as a sharp pain spread from his chest through his entire body, it seemed like every heartbeat was a struggle for the organ, and he didn't know why. Drugs? Too much alcohol? Something had caused it. And what about that dream, why did he remember it so vividly?

He'd awoken in a violently red room, a cool, wet cloth sitting in his lap from his sudden, violent righting of his position.

"Woah, lay back down, it was just a bad dream," a stern female voice commanded him, and knowing he was in no shape to argue, Ethan laid back down. His eyes finally came into focus a moment later, and he looked over. Bent over a small basin of water was a young woman, her dark eyebrows arched and equally dark eyes wide in surprise. "I'm surprised you're awake."

"Where am I?" Waking up in a strange place was not new to him, spending most of his formative years as an alcoholic had made him used to it, but this whole place had a different feel than the city he was used to.

"Traverse Town," the woman had answered as she wrung a clean cloth out over the basin. "I found you in a back alleyway, but I haven't seen you around before. What's your name?"

He groaned, trying to think of it. "It's De-" _No. _Another groan as a sharp pain hit him right behind the eyes. "Ethan. My name is Ethan Medy."

The woman raised an eyebrow as if she didn't believe him, but accepted his answer anyway. "Alright, Ethan, let me introduce myself. My name is Mari Silverton." Finally done wringing the cloth out, she returned to his bedside and removed the old cloth, placing the new one on his forehead and taking the old one back to the basin. "And where are you from?"

"Southern Heights, where else? Never heard of 'Spiral of Indifference' before? I'm lead guitar and backup vocalist for the band," he commented, following the woman's movements with his eyes. Even though his brain seemed to be no more than a dull, aching mush and his chest felt like he was about to suffer a heart attack, he couldn't resist... admiring her beauty.

"No. And I've never heard of Southern Heights, either," she stated quietly, washing the cloth.

"Oh come on, it's only one of the biggest districts in..." he blanked, eyebrows raising as he turned to look back at the ceiling. He could remember the district of the city, but not the city's name itself, and thinking about it too hard made his head hurt. "Shit, that was some night out! I can't even remember the name of the city I'm from. How freaky. Whatever the case, this must be some backwater district to never have heard of Southern Heights." One hand came up to cradle his forehead, and he almost immediately regretted it, grunting at the pain in his chest.

"Ethan, let me explain some things to you. No one here has heard of Southern Heights because this isn't a part of your world," Mari began, catching and maintaining eye contact with him. "Traverse Town is the place people end up when their worlds have been destroyed."

"Destroyed? Ha, sure. The military there was such a bunch of overfunded hardasses, nothing could've destroyed it," Ethan laughed, and regretted it almost immediately as his chest tightened and throbbed.

"It's not the military that concerns me. As far as Gepetto has told me, the worlds stopped disappearing well over a year ago. Which means you were either suspended for a very long time between worlds, or something else happened entirely. I'm going to bet on the latter of those two," she finished with the cloth, drying her hands on a towel before approaching the bed again.

"There's something else I have to tell you... it's about your heart. When I first listened to your pulse, I have to admit, it was all over the place. It kinda... this is going to sound really strange, but it sounded like your heart was trying to remember how to work again."

Instinctively, Ethan's hand shot to his neck, pressing two fingers against his pulse point. His heart thudded healthily beneath them.

"Oh, it's fine now," Mari continued, nodding. "But at first it was all over the place. I thought you were going to die."

"Well, it does hurt," he said, moving his hand back down to massage his chest, he debated making it seem worse than it was. "My chest, I mean. It just sorta aches when I breathe in."

"Then, if I may. Before I... came to Traverse Town, I was a nurse. If I may please request you spend the next couple days in bed and not move around a lot, I believe you'll be ok to go in no time," she said.

"Only if you check up on me often, nurse," Ethan replied with a flirtatious grin. When she returned the smile, something triumphant flashed through his eyes. He'd hooked her. Now, if only he could do something about it.

"I couldn't just leave you. I'd be too worried," she turned away from him and sighed. "Well, I'll leave you to get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours if you're still awake."

From there, he'd listened to the nurse's suggestion. Not that he had much of a choice- he'd tried to get up, only to land back on the bed with a case of vertigo so bad he'd nearly lost what little was in his stomach. By evening, and having to (as he stated, muttering under his breath) 'piss like a racehorse', he'd managed to figure out a way to stand up without feeling too horrible and relieve himself.

The next few days were an exercise in fever dreams, odd heart palpitations, and vertigo, punctuated here and there by clear spells and frequent visitations from the nurse, and when the last two coincided, Ethan spent his time flirting and generally trying to entice the pretty young nurse into the bed.

Nearly a week later, she finally let him leave the room on his own, and took him on a short tour of the hotel. He was surprised that was the kind of place he was in, and she told him it was their impromptu hospital due to the fact that not only did everyone remaining in the town have their own home with room to spare, the world never got any real visitors, and it didn't have its own hospital.

It only took him a few more days from there, flirting modestly and being as charming and gentlemanly as he could, to get her finally to open her legs for him. Unfortunately, for some reason, it was one of the single least satisfying experiences he'd ever had. Not that her performance was bad, nor did he not think her attractive, but there was just something that felt so empty and _wrong _that he'd barely receive more satisfaction from masturbating.

Mari, on the other hand, seemed to be very satisfied and had cuddled up to him for the remainder of the night, sleeping soundly on his shoulder. He didn't fall asleep at all.

The next morning found the nurse offering to take him on a full tour of the town, and he happily agreed. All he knew was he had spent the last couple weeks in a hotel room being nursed back to health and the waterway behind it was a real bastard wannabe sewer thing.

Their trek took them from the Second District (as Mari had called it) into the First. She said the place was the main meeting grounds for what was left of the Town's population. She'd explained to him that when the worlds were restored, most of the people left, but a few stayed behind to continue working in this world because it was a new, fresh start for their lives. She was explaining how the 'government' in the sense worked in the small community as they walked around the back of the items shop.

And that's when Ethan saw _her_. The very sight stopped him completely in his tracks, his breathing and heart even seemed to pause at the sight. She was standing completely nonchalant, leaning against the light pole in the center of the plaza, examining her nails like she had absolutely nothing else to do. Not only that, she had to be the single most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and that was saying something coming from a semi-famous rock star who was, if he did say so himself, fairly well renowned for being a lady's man.

His breathing and heart began again, but his eyes wouldn't look away, staring unblinking as though the slightest deviation of his attention and she would disappear. A slight breeze picked up, rustling her shoulder-length, ruddy gold hair, loosening a couple strands from their precarious position tucked behind her ear. Almost unconsciously, she reached up and returned the strands to their rightful place, but in doing so, something else caught her eye. Something near Ethan, and she looked in his direction, eyes grazing across him as she did so. But then, just as quickly as they passed him over, they locked back on, catching his own eyes.

Shock was the first thing he could see register, followed by a brief flash of recognition and then... confusion. It was the very same thing he'd felt. So it wasn't coincidence, he and the woman had met before.

"...Ethan?"

Mari's voice broke his concentration, and the eye contact as he turned to look at her. "Yes?"

Mari nodded back down to the plaza briefly, before regarding him with a smile. "Now I _know _that wasn't coincidence. You know her?"

Ethan blinked, and looked down at the lamp. The woman had shifted position, she wasn't staring at him anymore, and in fact looked like she was getting ready to leave.

"Yes..." he whispered, mesmerized again. At least, until his brain caught up with his mouth. "... no. No... I have this feeling like I know her... but I can't think of how or why."

"Well, she did show up about a week before you did. Similar symptoms, as well."

Ethan's gaze returned to Mari, eyebrows raised.

The nurse nodded softly, and then let a gentle smile grace her lips. "... She recovered, much the same as you did. When you showed up, I thought the incidents might be related, but I couldn't be sure. Now I _know _they were..." She sighed, and when she spoke again, her voice betrayed the slightest hint of pain. "... ah, you weren't really interested in me, anyway. Go, Ethan. She's leaving, don't wanna be... left behind do you?"

He didn't need any more encouragement, he just sprinted after the rapidly retreating form of the woman who had struck his interest, leaping the low wall with the grace and ease of a skilled fence-hopper, landing on a mailbox below, and leaping off it without missing a beat. The door to the Third District had already closed by then, and he slammed into it a bit harder than he'd meant to, impacting with a low thud and forcing the surprisingly light doors open rapidly, hard enough they hit their frame with a loud crack.

The woman ahead of him whirled around, shrinking back slightly into a defensive position. He paused immediately, like a deer caught in headlights, before holding his hands up. "I... I'm sorry... but have we met before?"

She seemed to relax, but only a little, and only because he hadn't advanced any farther. There was a good twenty or more feet between them.

She narrowed her eyes, then cocked her head. "... I don't... think so... but..."

"But..." He nodded as though understanding. "Maybe a name would help. I'm Ethan Medy. More commonly known as 'The Nightmare' Medy."

She paused again, folding her arms over her chest and looking down at the ground, muttering the name to herself and ignoring the fact that he looked more like a lost little boy than someone who warranted the nickname 'The Nightmare'. No, the name wasn't ringing a bell, strange as it was. Meh-dye? She looked at him again. "How's that spelled?"

"M-e-d-y..."

Again, she thought it over, but came up empty with a shrug. "No, never seen it on paperwork either, that I can remember. Then again, I've seen a lot of paperwork, and there were a lot of people in the kingdom."

He blinked. "... Kingdom?"

A strange, uneasy silence followed them. "... you're not from Fiala?"

He shook his head. "No... Southern Heights... New Lanceston."

Another awkward silence.

"... so then how do you know me? And how do I know you?"

Ethan took a step forward, and she didn't move, so he slowly closed the distance between them until it was down to arms length. They spent a moment, green eyes locked to blue, looking for their answer, and yet did not find it. Finally, he broke the shared look to see the rest of her more clearly. Her posture was nearly immaculate though her arms remained crossed, as though she was held up by a single string at the center of her head. Combined with her general, physical appearance- straight, red-blonde hair with a healthy sheen, and her incredibly pale complexion, she reeked of wealth. Grammar school, etiquette school, she'd probably been run through the gauntlet of snobby, expensive schools to teach her how to be a 'proper lady'. But there was something off...

"... your name?"

She blinked, frowning as though she wasn't expecting him to speak, and as such didn't hear the words.

"What is your name, maybe I can recognize it?" he repeated, bringing back the eye contact they'd shared earlier.

"Lucidia... Lucidia anir F'ialgrim," she responded, forgetting she'd ever had a pseudonym, and instantly realizing her mistake.

"... What a... fancy name. Unfortunately, I don't know it, and I'd remember the name of someone... a name like that. So, Lucy, where ya headed?" He leaned back, imitating her pose with a much more relaxed one. He had money, too, but he hadn't been born into it.

She frowned, "My friends and family are the only ones allowed to call me that."

Ethan shrugged in response. "Well then, _Lucidia, _where are you going?"

She 'humphed' and backed up a step. "And why should I tell you?"

He shrugged, closing his eyes. "Well, there's this strange little coincidence that we seem to know each other somehow, though we're not even from the same place. I mean, come on... where I'm from, a name like that would get you beaten up in elementary school, and shunned throughout high school."

Lucidia seemed to ruffle at that, one side of her lip pulling back into an angry sneer. "Yeah, well. At least I don't have a _common _name. It's more interesting to be distinguished... and not have a nickname that sounds like a rock band reject."

It was then Ethan re-opened his eyes, triumph glowing in the sea-colored depths. He was right. She'd been run through the gauntlet of prissy schools, but either her teachers were no good at what they did, or she had rebelled against the teachings in one way or another. Her posture wasn't quite perfect, and her speech was far from well-to-do and over enunciated, especially now. Besides, no dignified upperclassman would ever be caught with such a show of inelegant anger.

Then, Ethan knew. He really, really liked her. He held his hand out, clearly wanting to shake hers. "Truce?"

Her reaction was just what he'd expected; utter surprise. "Wha...?" She regarded his hand for a moment, looked back to his face, and slowly uncrossed her arms. Her hand was a lot like the rest of her, warm and soft, but a firm grip and, if he wasn't mistaken, there were old calluses on the top of her palm; tougher than first appearances would suggest.

Three minutes they'd been talking, and he already knew quite a bit about her.

"Well then, my first question still stands. Are you heading anywhere in particular?"

She sighed and shrugged. "Probably to the old wizard's house. It's a nice place to be for peace and quiet." Somehow, Ethan knew she was talking about him.

"Then before you go, let me ask one more thing. Can you take a compliment?"

Lucidia refolded her arms, and for a moment, there was a spike in the tension. And then... she tilted her head back slightly and laughed, before, still laughing, curling back forward and trying to cover it with her hand. When the episode had passed, she looked back up, moisture gathered in the corners of her eyes from mirth. "Are you asking permission to flirt with me?"

He smirked. "Answer my question and I might answer yours."

She shook her head and chuckled again. "Alright, fine. You've got thirty seconds to impress me, _Ethan. _Ready? Flirt."

Without another word, he reached up slowly, both hands moving towards her face. She stiffened slightly, but relaxed when both simply rested on either side of her jaw, cupping her face. Alright, a strange approach, but she'd humor him.

His next action was to lean down and forward, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. But no, his posture was not that, in fact all he did was rest his forehead against hers. And that, that was almost as bad as if he'd actually kissed her. Her breathing caught, and she felt warmth rise to her cheeks. What in the world was he doing? She couldn't tell now, he'd closed his eyes the moment they'd made contact.

For a long moment they stood there like that, and for that time Lucidia found herself less confused and more... well, she wasn't sure what to call it. Relaxed maybe. Almost... content, really. That was it... she was enjoying the contact they shared, as little as it was, and as strange as it may have sounded that she was enjoying such a thing with a man she'd barely met a few minutes ago. Her eyes slid closed, and a slight sigh escaped her. Whatever strange manner of flirting this was, it was working.

More time passed, and Lucidia found herself opening her mouth to speak when the man before her suddenly tipped his head back, and brushed his lips over hers. The contact sent warmth tingling through her entire body.

"Shhh..." he breathed against her lips, and this time the heat caused her to shudder. Oh... what was he doing to her now? This wasn't just flirting. This was something else, something that drew her closer to him, caused her to step forward until she was pushed up against him, and caused her to capture his lips with hers again, pushing herself up onto her toes to do so.

The second kiss was much like the first, gentle, brief, but with this lingering feeling that she just couldn't describe. And at the same time, it was familiar. It was so very frustratingly familiar. She pushed against him harder, parting lips, exploring him with her tongue.

To Ethan, this was just as frustratingly interesting. The same familiarity she was feeling was reflected in him. The kiss became even less innocent, even more desperate as the two sought a way to figure out the answer why. Though answering the question was not the thing the kiss was doing for him, and such was reflected in the sudden fact that ran through his mind. He needed her. So it was no surprise when he started pushing her towards a small, dark alleyway that lead to a strange door with a flame symbol imprinted on it. He was surprised, however, when she pulled him just as much as he pushed. He'd pinned her against the wall, and that was how it started.

He still didn't know why he was here, why this toughened woman of wealthy blood intrigued him so much, nor why he was fucking her against the building as though he'd not been with a woman in years. Most of all, he still didn't know why she was so familiar and why there was a gray area in his memory- a time between when the shadows had tackled him into the lake and when he had awoken on a bed in this town. What he did know, though, was that there wasn't a coincidence between those two occurrences.

-

A/N: -snarky little smirk- Whah hallo thar darlin'. Guess who's returned.

I don't own these characters. Blah blah. Insert shpiel here. Hell, I only half-own this computer!


	2. Chapter 2

Ethan sat quietly in the corner table of the café's outdoor seating section, staring out into the main plaza of the First District. Before him on the wooden table, a mostly-empty bottle of beer sat, little beads of perspiration dotting the outside of the bottle. He knew it was leaving a ring, and he didn't care. His mind was elsewhere, wondering where the woman from the day (night?) before was. Traverse Town was not very large, but after their little... _encounter, _she'd run off and he hadn't seen her since.

He kept trying to think of where he'd seen her before. Dozens of names and faces flashed before his eyes. For some reason, he could remember nearly every female he'd ever enticed into his bed before, and yet she matched up with none of them. He wanted the answer to be anything but to coincide with the strange gray area of his mind, memories that seemed to be held under lock and key. He needed to find the key. He didn't want to, but he needed to.

For some reason, his memory decided to bring back what the reflection in his dream had said. "Our heart is still too exhausted."

He seriously wondered what that meant. Something told him that reflection, that person whom he'd seen in his dream would be able to tell him what it was missing from within his memory. So, all he needed to do was find that man. Which brought up another problem. He didn't know who the guy was, he didn't know why the man looked so much like him, and most of all, he didn't know where the guy was. And he got the feeling finding him would be no easy task.

With a sigh, Ethan picked the bottle up and took another drink, turning back to watch the single candle on the table flicker in the invisible air currents traveling around it. He raised the bottle once more to finish off the contents, when a voice interrupted him.

"That's going to destroy your liver, you know."

He raised an eyebrow and looked up to see Lucidia standing at the edge of the patio, arms crossed once more, looking at him in a way that he could tell she was trying not to glare. "Well, good thing I can stop any time I want to."

She shook her head and approached the table, splaying her fingers on the surface as she leaned down to frown at him. "You just don't choose to?"

A smirk. "Now you're catching on."

The strawberry blonde leaned back and sighed, sliding into the seat across from Ethan and sat there for a moment, eyes closed. "I do hope you realize, _Mister Medy, _that last night's performance won't have an encore."

He bowed his head slightly, staring at the patterning of the wood, before shaking it. "No, it shouldn't have happened in the first place. But... I've never felt such a strong urge like that before."

She rolled her eyes. "Excuses..."

"Oh?" he cocked an eyebrow at her, raising his head just enough to look at her from under his eyebrows. "If I remember correctly, Lucidia, you were pulling me toward that wall just as much as I was pushing you."

"I did no such thing!" she replied quickly. Too quickly.

He just leaned back in his chair, straightening his posture with a smile. Lucidia's cheeks darkened.

They spent the next moment wallowing in an uneasy silence, a topic of conversation eluding them. Finally, Ethan sighed, and picked up the bottle, offering it. "Want one?"

She frowned, though her voice was teasing. "Trying to get me drunk now?"

"No," he replied, somewhat tartly. "Just wondering if you wanted one."

The red-blonde head shook a negative answer. "I'm afraid they'd ID me. I'm not old enough to drink here."

It was Ethan's turn to frown. "The age is only 21."

"And I'm 19," she snapped, glaring at him for a moment before returning her gaze to the candle, watching the wax drip slowly down the side. Ethan stared at her, sea colored eyes wide with the shock of the revelation.

"Still a teenager... dear... god..." he mumbled, not meaning to out loud. That brought a heated glare, anger burning behind the electric blue of her eyes. Ethan looked away, slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable under her gaze. Satisfied, she resumed watching the rivulets of melted wax run down the only real source of illumination at their table.

"Lucidia, can I ask you something...?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know, can you?"

He laughed. Wow, he hadn't heard that one since his teachers in middle school. "I don't know, are you going to let me?"

She laughed then, and he smiled. "We're just going to keep answering questions with questions. Say it and I might answer."

"I've noticed you were obviously born into some sort of wealth, and you mentioned a kingdom as your... home. So, what are you? Duchess? Lady?"

She looked away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh don't play games with me, Lucidia. Your posture is at the awkward stage between perfect and slouching, like some part of you still wants to hold your shoulders up. Half the time you're talking, you mix slang and big, long flowery words. And that makes me think you have to keep reminding yourself not to speak properly, as you want to relapse into well-enunciated and proper. Besides..." and he flashed her a smile that was more than a little flirtatious. "You have this in-bred elegance and... nobility to you. It's just the aura you carry with you, and yet you try to hide it. Therefore, I am inclined to believe you were born into great wealth, but you didn't want to be, or you didn't stay there your whole life. So, what was your dad? A Duke? A Lord? A Count?"

"King," her answer was spat out like it tasted badly. She continued to avoid eye contact.

"... Princess..." Ethan's voice was almost that of awe. He reached up and ran a hand through his blond hair, ruffling the already messy locks there. "Christ... a princess..."

"Yes," she stated firmly, and finally made eye contact with him. "I am a princess who didn't want to do what was expected of her. That's probably why I'm here now."

"You sure you weren't just as drunk as me and got... ah nevermind, you'd think I'm yanking your chain," he waved his hand in the air in dismissal.

Lucidia looked at him. "Got what, Ethan? Mugged? Beaten?" Her voice caught. "Raped?"

His gaze immediately raised again, and their eyes locked. Oh... her list kept getting better and better, he noted to himself sarcastically. She's 19, a princess, a rape victim... and if that wasn't a long enough list of baggage, she'd just been pinned against a wall and screwed by some guy she didn't even really know. How she managed to keep her sanity through all of that eluded him.

"No..." he whispered, suddenly feeling humbled. "Nothing like that. Attacked, yes... beaten... I don't know. They came out of the shadows and tackled me into a pond."

"Who's 'they'?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dunno. It looked like the shadows themselves, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything," he shrugged, but managed to keep eye contact. "They were after my chest."

She blinked, and looked away yet again, hand gripping the table's edge hard enough her knuckles drained of color. "The... shadows attacked you?"

Ethan continued to watch her carefully. "Yeah. I mean, it didn't feel heavy enough to be a full person... so it might've been an animal of some sort... I don't know. But it got me in the water and I blacked out soon after. I thought I was going to drown." He laughed. "Imagine that. Me, Ethan Medy, captain of the Southern Heights High School boy's swimming and diving team, four-time regional champion, school and state record holder, nearly drowning. Life sure is strange..."

She smiled wanly, though not at him. "The shadows attacked me, too..." Her voice was so soft, he wondered if he'd actually heard right.

"... They did...?"

She nodded, and closed her eyes. "Yeah. They got... others first. And then me."

He thought about that for a moment, and suddenly realization hit him. So did she have a gap in her memory, too?

"Can you remember anything from after the shadows attacked you?" he asked, voice raised a few notes in excitement.

She looked at him strangely. "I woke up here."

Ethan shook his head, rather violently. "... Does it feel like something's missing between the time the shadows got to you and when you woke up here?"

Both of Lucidia's eyebrows arched at that, and the light of what might have been hope darted through her electric-blue orbs. "Yes... yes it does."

He grinned triumphantly, then leaned forward, whispering his next words. "You're never going to believe this, but I feel it, too. There's this big gray spot in my memory, like something doesn't _want _me to find out what happened."

The strawberry blonde seemed to consider that for a moment, and then she muttered under her breath something Ethan wasn't really supposed to hear, but he did anyway. "So... maybe that's why I feel like I know you..."

His grin remained as he leaned forward, grasping her hand gently with his and pulling it to the center of the table. She tried to glare at him, but the look was very watered down. "And probably the same reason you strike me as so very familiar as well. Perhaps part of whatever is missing is when we met."

"That would seem to be the most... logical explanation. I hope our... original first meeting wasn't as interesting as this most recent one," she scowled and looked at their hands, still intertwined. She yanked hers from his grip and tucked it under the table so he wouldn't see her rubbing it to get the warmth back that she immediately missed.

He shrugged smoothly. "Again. You pulled as hard as I pushed. You never once uttered a 'no', nor put up any resistance."

"And for that I am sorely sorry now," she growled, and began to stand up. He didn't follow her as she turned and left, heading for the accessory shop. He grabbed the nearly-empty bottle of beer still sitting on the table, fully intent on finishing it, but frowned instead. It was warm, now. He sighed and tossed in a garbage can before setting off himself. Not towards the accessory shop, towards the Third District. She obviously wanted to be left alone, so he'd humor her.

Eventually, he found himself sitting on a wall set atop a ramp. He found himself staring to the side, at a bright yellow pipe. More specifically, he found himself staring at a patch of gleaming silver patchwork. Apparently there had been a hole in the pipe at one point, but another piece of metal had been placed over it and welded into place, and no one had bothered to paint it.

He continued watching it, and if he listened to it just hard enough, he could hear the low hum of electricity running through that pipe. It was probably a power source to somewhere. When footsteps approached from behind him, Ethan didn't even notice. And when someone spoke, he nearly fell off his perch.

"So, how did it go, Ethan?"

Recovering, he turned back to see Mari leaning against the wall next to him, back turned, arms crossed. He shrugged. "About as well as it could have, I suppose."

She looked up at him, eyebrow cocked. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged again, and found his gaze traveling down to the wall where so many things had happened the night before. "We talked... and figured out she is about on the same level I am when it comes to knowing things. She thinks she knows me from somewhere as well, but, like me, can't figure out how or why."

Mari nodded. "I tried looking up a history of if anything like this has happened before, but I came up empty. See, if it was just you or just her, I could put it down as some sort of post-traumatic, or injury, or something amnesia. But... you _both _have the same problem. The exact same problem, and you showed up here at nearly the same time, meaning... well... it's one hell of a coincidence if nothing else."

Ethan snorted. "I don't believe in coincidences when this is involved. There's something more to it. It's not just that I can't remember, it's that I _know _there's supposed to be something there, but there isn't. I can feel the memories... but they're not at the fore. Like they're hidden or something... on purpose."

"Well, I don't know about on purpose. That would imply post-traumatic amnesia or something of the like."

"And having something fairly well jump on you and knock you into a lake and nearly drown you isn't traumatic?"

"That you remember that much about it tells me that it probably isn't post-traumatic."

Ethan tilted his head back, staring at the many dozens of stars visible even though there was an abundance of light pollution from the city. "I wish we could figure this out..."

Mari sighed. "I tried to help... but maybe... maybe..." she followed his gaze up towards the stars. "There's another way to help you guys."

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked, turning to look at her watch the sky thoughtfully.

Mari met his raised eyebrow with a grin. "You see those stars up there? Those stars are _worlds, _Ethan. Worlds just like this one, where people live and work and play. The world you came from is up there. The world I came from is out there somewhere, too, and the one Lucy came from. Maybe the answer you're looking for is in one of those worlds out there."

Hope flickered in the sea-green depths of Ethan's eyes, and the glow of boyish glee alighted on his face. "That's a damn good idea!"

Mari laughed, turning back to the sky. "Yeah. Well, I don't know what you did to Lucy to ruffle her up like that dear, but you might want to go apologize. You're taking her with you whether you want to or not."

The light faded briefly. "It's not whether _I _want her to go. It's whether she wants to go with _me_."

The nurse gave him a rather mocking look. "I'm going to leave that up to _you _as to how you apologize to her and get her to come with you. I'm going to go pay Gepetto's apprentice a visit and see if we can't get you a ship built and ready. It should only take about a week to finish, considering the rather lack of business he's had lately, so you've got at least that much time to work your way back on her good side."

Ethan looked at her then, critically, examining her for any flaw in her motives. "Why are you helping me, nurse? I did, after all pretty much just fucked you and ran."

"Oh your playboy skills are rusty, Ethan. I never really expected it to get any farther than that, and you are obviously a 'talented' individual. Extremely cute, too," she replied with a laugh.

"Oh really? You seemed kind of upset when you sent me after Luc...idia," he shot with a snarky, knowing grin.

She shrugged. "There's a part of me... that's still a hopeless romantic I suppose. That wants to believe that something like true love happens for people like me."

Ethan turned back, swinging his legs up over the ledge and landing on the top of the ramp next to Mari. And then he surprised them both by grabbing her and pulling her into a hug. Of course, he had no idea what to do next...

So he spoke. He didn't think about what he was saying, he just did it. "Don't say that, Mari. That's an awfully sad and pessimistic way to live your life. I know, I used to think the exact same thing... but the difference was... I was afraid someone would end up loving me. So I took so many lovers to bed and left just as quickly that no one would really know what had happened. I had my money and my band to back me up, so it didn't seem suspicious. And then something happened, and I found Lucidia. I don't know how or why or what happened between us originally, but I do know I... I love her. Completely. I don't know if she loves me back, and I'm not sure I want to know, but I've just got this feeling like she's the one... and Mari, I'm more than positive the same thing's going to happen with you. You're a kind and helpful person, beautiful inside and out. All I can say is... never give up that little part of you that's a hopeless romantic. Or you might miss the one opportunity it has to really get out there and shine." As he looked down, Ethan noticed the slight jolt of her shoulders, and as the last ringing of his words faded from the air he could hear the slight hiccuping sobs. She was crying, but somehow he knew it wasn't in the bad way. So he stood there, holding her weight against him and rubbing her back soothingly and just _being there_.

A few moments later, and Mari stepped back, sniffling with her eyes swollen and red. She stared at the ground. "... Th-... thank you."

He smiled and pulled the sleeve of his shirt down over his hand, reaching forward to wipe away the last few droplets trickling down her cheeks. "It's the least I can do for what you've already done for me... and what you're going to do."

She turned around, sniffing once, hard. "Yeah yeah... go... get your lady."

He smirked. "As you wish. Take care, Mari. I'll see you in a week or so when everything's ready. Right now I have a princess to go woo."

With that, he turned around with a flourish and sprinted down the ramp and through the door, heading right for the accessory shop, leaving Mari to stand on the ramp and smile gently, staring up at the sky.

-

A/N: That's about a good spot to end the chapter I think. Plans have been set into motion. The nurse lady has returned kinda. And Ethan is totally going to get schooled... I mean what?

Review if it pleases you. I know it pleases me.


	3. Dream Intermission 1

It was that time of night- for in Traverse Town it was never truly day- that most people had retired to catch up on their sleep, and so the streets were even more so deserted than usual. While this should have made looking for Lucidia easier as he wouldn't have to search through crowds, Ethan was also experiencing the drawback; there weren't many people to ask if they'd seen her. Finally, after around three hours, he decided to give up and head back to the hotel. She was probably already asleep. He had tomorrow to look for her.

The room he'd been given was quite a nice one, painted in all aqua blues with bubble patterns all over the walls and coral framed paintings. The bed itself was massive, big enough for three or four people, incredibly soft, and covered with a blanket that had a wave pattern on it. The atmosphere felt wonderful to him, he'd always loved water and the ocean, probably a by-product of growing up so near a beach. He loved joining his school's swim team, and the only reason he'd ever put up with school and made an attempt at good grades was so he could remain as captain.

Three state victories he'd lead his team through, broke school and state records in the process. Even after High School, he'd still gone to the local recreation center to swim laps in the pool. Most of the other guys in his band had worked out- lifting weights and competing with each other over who could bench-press the most weight, or who could run a mile in the least amount of time. But Ethan had stuck to swimming, it kept his muscles lean and fit without being bulky, and added an almost boyish look to his physique to compliment his rather unimpressive stature and youthful facial features. So many people had mistaken him for a lot younger than he was, and he rather liked it.

He flipped the switch for the lights on his room and it went quite dim, but not so much he couldn't make his way easily to the bed, shedding all but his boxers on the way there. He slid between the soft sheets, and settled in for the night, finally feeling the exhaustion of the day wear at him until it finally claimed its prize.

_Waves lapped gently at a dark-sanded beach, in a world that seemed to be engulfed in darkness. Far out in the distance, a pale, weak bluish light could be seen, shining through arcs and holes in the black stone-like structures crisscrossing from out of the water._

_A sound from behind and to the left of him, so very familiar, like distant thunder it was, or perhaps a very quiet bass drum roll from nearby. Footsteps could be heard, light, quiet. Whoever it was didn't carry a ponderous amount of weight. He listened as they traveled around behind him, and finally stopped somewhere near his left side. He tried to look, but his neck didn't move until it wanted to._

_He turned, and a figure stood next to him, a good few inches shorter than he, wearing what appeared to be a black raincoat with the hood drawn up. The person spoke, and he could feel the pressure on his ears, but there was no sound accompanied with it. His eyes continued to study the figure, and as it turned towards him, he could quickly deduct it was female, the rather tight fit of the coat hiding very little of her curves._

_She said something again, and once more he heard no sound, just the pressure on his ear drums, and the thrumming of the waves. It must've been funny, whatever it was, for he felt his face split into a wide grin and his sides heave with laughter. There was no sound from him either._

_Her head tilted back, and the wan light from the far distance barely penetrated the tight black confines of her coat hood, brushing across her lips and cheeks as though someone had simply painted them into the blackness. The grin remained on his face even as he leaned forward, realizing he too was wearing a hood, and adjusted for it slightly as his lips pressed into hers._

_Some part of his mind vaguely recalled her lips felt remarkably like Lucidia's._

_He drew back then, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her against him, and she obliged willingly, conforming herself to his shape as they stood there._

_He knew he was grinning, and with someone he deeply cared about but..._

_No... there was nothing there. He looked for the joy, the love, the pride he should've felt having this woman in his arms... or even whatever had caused him to grin. There was nothing. There was no joy, no love, no pride... no heartbeat..._

_No heartbeat..._

_... he couldn't feel his pulse._

_He was panicking, and his sides were heaving, but his heart wasn't thundering in his ears, just oppressive silence. _

_The waves weren't making any sounds anymore._

_There was nothing but silence... and he was drowning in it, drowning in the silence and he couldn't escape and he was drowning in the silence and grinning like an idiot and she shifted closer to him andhecouldn'tescapethesilencetherewasnothingbutsilenceandsilenceandsilence._

_Thunder ripped through his ears, his mind_, _his body, his soul._

And he jolted awake.


	4. Chapter 3

It was raining. No... 'raining' didn't quite describe the hell-spawned deluge taking place just outside Lucidia's window. It had awoken her, and no matter how hard she tried, just as she was getting to sleep, lightning would flash and thunder would shake the very building she was in, thwarting her.

So she sat on the edge of her bed facing the window, sipping at a nice hot glass of tea, and watching the light show outside. It was raining so hard, the building but a dozen feet across from her window was partially obscured by a gray mist. She sighed and stood up, walking out to the living room of the small apartment Mari had given to her and said she could stay in. It seemed the nurse was one of the more important people in town. As she passed by the large kitchen window, one that showed the Second District's plaza, she caught sight of _someone _standing out there in the rain.

"Idiot..." she muttered under her breath, getting the kettle ready for a second before lightning shot through the sky and brought another particularly violent bout of thunder with it. Curious, she looked out the window again, seeing if the person she'd seen earlier had decided they had better things to do than be out in this rain.

Wait a minute...

Lucidia's jaw dropped as her eyes adjusted better to looking through the rain.

In a flash she was out the door, grabbing an umbrella on the way, and cursing to herself as she trudged, barefoot, down the stairs and outside. The umbrella snapped open and she stalked over to where he was, sitting on a bench, leaning far enough back it nearly looked like he was laying.

Lightning flashed overhead again, hitting the bell tower of the 'Gizmo Shop' and causing the bell within to ring along with the crack and roar of thunder. Neither Lucidia nor Ethan flinched.

"What the hell are you doing out here? It'd serve you right if you got hit by lightning for doing something like this," she chided, glaring down at him.

He shrugged smoothly, and tilted his head back again. "I'm not too worried, there are plenty of tall buildings very close to me. Besides, _you're _the one holding a metal umbrella."

She looked at it, and her frown deepened. "You do know lightning bounces, right?"

He shrugged again, but tilted his head down far enough to smile at her. "Oh, and what's this, concerned for my health? I thought you didn't like me."

"No that's not it," the strawberry blonde said too quickly, and realized it with a slight blush. Now she was angry. "... Shouldn't you be at home?"

He continued smiling. "Shouldn't you?"

Another snarl came from the former princess and she reached out, nabbing him by the front of his soaked shirt and hauling him roughly to his feet before pulling him back towards her apartment building. He didn't say a word, nor resist.

She fairly well dragged him up the stairs, and nearly threw him through the door once they had arrived. He stood there, dripping wet while she disappeared into a back room, and was nearly knocked off his feet when a fluffy white mass came flying from within that room, almost catching him in the face.

He grabbed the towel, picking it up and draping it on his head. She walked out, still glowering at him, and jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. "Bathroom if you want to ring out your clothes or something. The laundry room's downstairs. If you come out of there naked, you're not going to be leaving this apartment with all of your body parts attached."

She turned and walked into the kitchen, and he chuckled softly to himself before heading into the bathroom. Lucidia was just about to pour Ethan a cup of tea after debating with herself about it for a few moments, when she heard the door open and him pad across the short and rather stiff carpet.

"Hey, can I ask you a favor?"

She turned around, and her eyebrow twitched.

There stood Ethan, holding what appeared to be all of his clothing in one hand, and wearing her fluffy white bathrobe, and apparently nothing else.

"... What did I tell you about being naked, Ethan?" she growled, though her eyes couldn't meet his. She was busy staring at every bit of exposed flesh she could get her eyes on, and trying to look like she was disapprovingly staring at the bathrobe in the process.

She wasn't fooling him at all.

"I'm not naked, thank you," he retorted, crossing his arms and frowning. "You can't see anything. I was going to ask if you'd take these down to the laundromat so I don't have to be seen in this... outfit."

A wicked gleam alighted in her eyes, and she smirked. "Do it yourself, you're a big boy. No one's going to be leaving their houses in _this _weather."

Ethan pouted. He actually _pouted_ at that, before scowling and turning back, heading towards the door. "Fine. As you wish, princess."

He reached out for the handle when she strode up behind him and put a hand on his arm to stop him. When he looked at her inquisitively, she shook her head and grabbed at the clothing. "Give me that, moron... you'd get lost if you didn't know your way down there. Go sit down, I'll be back in a minute..."

She pushed him aside and headed out the door while Ethan watched with a slight smile. He turned back, and did as she bade him, sitting on the couch and picking a book up from the side table, smirking as he read the cover. She liked fantasy novels.

Lucidia huffed as she threw the clothes in the dryer, fishing through her pockets for the coins necessary to get the thing to work. The dryer rumbled to life and she stood there for a moment, scowling at it. Maybe she should've made him do this himself...

Oh well, what was done was done, and there was little she could do to change her actions now. She strode quickly back upstairs and through the door to her apartment, paying Ethan little more mind than a quick glance. He was bent over his lap, she didn't know why and she didn't really care why. She wanted another glass of tea.

When that was retrieved she finally re-emerged to find him engrossed in the novel she'd been reading for the past couple days. He gave her a look as she sat down.

"... You read fantasy novels?"

She shrugged. "They're amusing, if nothing else. Completely inaccurate, mind you. But amusing nonetheless."

Ethan nodded and continued reading the book, slowly becoming pulled into it in the lack of anything else to do. Lucidia sat next to him, a bit farther than he'd hoped, sipping at her tea.

He was just getting to an interesting part of the book when she reemerged from what wasn't the kitchen or her bathroom and so must've been her bedroom and interrupted him. Ethan looked up, somewhat surprised that she'd moved since the last time he'd been paying attention.

"The clothes should be done by now. I'll go get them," she stated, simply, leaving the room rather quickly.

He watched her go, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair before turning back to the book. When she returned, he took his clothes without another word and slipped into the bathroom to re-dress.

Lucidia sat back on one end of her couch, slouching low in her seat, staring out the window and watching the storm outside. It seemed to have partially abated in the hour or so Ethan had been there with her, but still was nothing anyone should be out in.

The couch sank down next to her under the weight of Ethan's return, and she started slightly, realizing she hadn't heard him come out of the bathroom. He was mimicking her earlier actions, staring out the window, watching as mother nature ravaged the town with wind and water and lightning. It continued for several minutes- Ethan watched the weather, Lucidia watched him, until he finally turned back towards her, smiling as he did so.

Lucidia tried to look away, but found herself caught by his gaze and those wonderful... open and warm sea-green eyes. She couldn't deny he was attractive; his eyes were beautiful and never seemed to harbor any ill emotions, he had the wonderful physique characteristic of a swimmer, and that youthful face that still managed to harbor all the right, strong lines that clearly indicated that though at first glance he may seem like it, he wasn't a kid anymore. She hated that she had to admit the attraction to herself, but to ignore it and deny it any longer would just make things harder.

... and when the hell had they gotten so close together?

He was only a few inches in front of her now, and she remarked inward, it was she that had moved. It was she who was now removed from her original position and... and... leaning over him. He looked surprised and somewhat anxious, and Lucidia found that somewhat endearing, as she leaned forward- not to kiss him, but moving her head down until it was pressed against his shoulder.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, even as she brought one arm around his shoulders, and for a moment sat like that, taking comfort in the warmth and scent from the drier lingering on him, as well as his own natural heat and aroma.

Ethan was quite unsure what to do, so it took him a moment to finally act, bringing his arms up and around her middle, pulling her closer to him, shifting his leg up slowly, carefully, letting her know what he was doing, and she even moved to let him adjust his position. When all was done, Lucidia was laying on his stomach, between his legs, head pillowed on his chest. Ethan looked down, confused. Here he'd thought she didn't like him, but then if she truly didn't, she wouldn't be sprawled over him like she was.

They sat in silence for a long span of minutes, either unsure of what to say or unwilling to break the comfortable silence between them. Eventually, Ethan noted with a slight smile, Lucidia's breathing had changed, slower and deeper. She had fallen asleep.

He took one more look to the window and found the torrential downpour outside had slowed to nothing more than a pleasant, if rather cold drizzle before settling himself into the couch and letting the warm drowsiness take him back to sleep.

-

Lucidia woke slightly disoriented. Why was she on her couch and... what was she laying _on? _She whipped her head around to find Ethan, head lolled back and mouth ajar in a completely unflattering position. But she smiled, she couldn't help herself, as unflattering as the position was...

She stood up as quickly as she dared while at the same time trying not to disturb him, and snuck off to the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water and sipping it down quickly, trying to remember exactly when it was she'd climbed onto him, let alone fallen asleep. She shook her head, the memories eluding her, and returned from the kitchen to find Ethan stretching and yawning in his seat.

She sighed and walked past him, heading for the door.

"Wh- Where you going?" he asked, stopping his stretch midway to turn and look at her.

Lucidia shrugged. "Somewhere? I don't know. I was just going to walk."

Ethan sat up. "Uh... can I join you?"

She smiled at him. "I don't know, can you?"

He grinned back. "I don't know. Will you let me?"

She cocked her head at the door. "Get your shoes on. I guess I will."

-

A/N: HAHAHA... god this is late. I went to Chicago, came back... and promptly forgot everything I'd ever planned for this story. Please read and review, but be kinda gentle. I know it's my fault for not duct taping people to the wall before I left, but I tried and got this out! I'm starting to remember plotbits, so hopefully the next update won't take a month.


	5. Chapter 4

"You talked to Mari, right? Doesn't this world strike you as a little... odd?" Ethan asked before sipping the water he had sitting before him. He knew better than to try alcohol when in her presence, as a courtesy. "I mean, she said most of the people had wound up here from _other _worlds, and they found it like... pre-built. The houses had furniture, the food was fresh, almost like thirty seconds before they arrived, an entire civilization had just... disappeared."

Lucidia pondered his words for a moment, chewing on the pasta she had been eating. She swallowed before responding. "I don't know, it is rather odd. But incredibly convenient. I like it."

Ethan laughed, shaking his head. "Well, I can't complain either, I would just think it was weird to wake up in a fully stocked city that was... mostly empty."

Lucy grinned up at him, another fork full of the pasta poised and ready to be eaten, something playfully devious glinting through her bright blue eyes. "Don't you think it's more strange that people passed out randomly and ended _up _in a pre-inhabited but empty world?"

The blonde man fell silent at that, frowning, thinking carefully about what she had said. "You've got me there. I guess it kind of _is_ tame in comparison."

She took the food neatly and cleanly from her fork, the smirk still on her lips.

The next few moments were spent in silence between the two of them. Finally, Ethan looked up. "You know Mari, right...?"

Lucy nodded, unable to speak without the food doing something... unflattering.

"I uh... I was talking to her recently... and... She wants to help me. You've probably figured it out by now, but... we can't just walk home. There's nothing out there... it's all just this city. You walk for ten minutes and you end up in a place your recognize," he tucked his hands under the table, folding them in his lap. "Mari tells me... that all those stars up in the sky are worlds, and probably the one we came from..."

"Well gee, Ethan, tell me something I _didn't _know," Lucy shot back, chuckling and shaking her head. "I don't know what you're getting at, Mister Playboy, but it's awkward listening to you."

He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Well... I don't know how to ask this, but she's having a ship of some sort built, one that will... help me get home."

Another uneasy silence settled between them.

"Is there any easy way for me to ask if you'd like to come along...?" the question was unusually quiet for Ethan.

Lucidia laughed again, and he felt his heart sink. She wasn't going to-

"I'd love to, Ethan. I'm not meant for city life, and... even though they probably wouldn't be happy... I'd like to see my family again. At least once."

He blinked and looked up, sea colored eyes locking on to hers, surprise and what might have been joy barely concealed beneath the surface.

The blonde woman's smile changed into something a bit more condescending. "But if there's only one bedroom, _you _are sleeping on the couch."

A grin. "I wouldn't expect anything else."

Dinner finished with less tension than it had started with and the rest of their time they spent sitting near the fountain of the Second District, mostly small-talk, as Lucidia seemed hesitant to divulge any further into her personal life than she had already. Ethan was fine with that, he'd humor her for a while.

A lull in their conversation found Ethan lightly running his hand through the water, watching the ripples from his movement counter the ripples formed by the gently splashing fountain, skewing the reflection of the bright lights around it. Lucy watched his hand, transfixed by the slow, almost rhythmic motion of him playing with the water, and for a long moment a comfortable silence blanketed them.

"You really like water don't you?" Lucy's voice was so very soft, almost shy, like something between thinking out loud and asking a question she didn't know if she should or not. It didn't so much break the silence as drift lazily through it, adding a gentle foreground to the ambient trickle of water.

Ethan smiled and brought his hand up from out of the fountain, letting the water dribble between his splayed fingers. His eyes continued watching the fountain. "It always did make me feel better. Swimming was a stress relief when my life would get too hectic. Gentle ocean waves, one of the best natural melodies to relax to, to fall asleep listening to. The beach patrol got to know me so well, more often than not, they'd be the ones to wake me up before school started so I wouldn't show up to school wearing nothing but swim trunks." He laughed gently, softly. "I got to know the ebb and flow of our beaches so well, I'd know exactly when high tide would be, and how and where to sit so I wouldn't end up falling asleep in the surf." He slipped his hand back down to the water and gently ran his fingertips over it, caressing the surface. Lucidia felt a shudder creep along her spine watching him. "But oh for all of its beauty and serenity does water have a dark side. Massive tidal waves which can destroy homes and lives in the blink of an eye. The current, slow, but powerful and steady, which can pull you out to deep water." He frowned, and his hand slammed into the water violently, creating a splash large enough droplets hit Lucy's face, and she turned from watching his hand to watching his face. "It can pull you out or pull you under. And you can't breathe, you can't move, you can't get out of it. It's almost like a sadist toying with its pet, watching as you struggle against its binds, unable to break free as it sucks the life from you." He sighed and pulled his hand back out, watching it glimmer in the dim light before he looked to Lucy.

Lucy felt another shiver run down her spine. Their eyes met, and neither said anything. Ethan looked slightly humble, withdrawing slightly. Finally, the strawberry blonde looked away, down to the water, and placed her own fingers in it, gently tracing them about. There was a difference, she noted, in how she toyed with the water and how he did. There was no gentleness, no lover's caress to her, no rhythm she treated the water like how it was. Inanimate, lifeless, something to be used.

She sighed, and looked back to him. "Water was never really my thing, anyway."

Their eyes met again, and this time he was smirking, there was no other way to describe his look. "Oh? And what _was _your thing?"

Another sigh and a shrug. "I never really liked any of those... 'elements'. I was too busy, life was going by too fast to stop and think about it." She blinked, and stared hard into the water. "Though sometimes I wish I did. Something I could sit and watch and feel calmed by, connected to. Nope. I never got that. Always here, always there, never in the same place for very long. Such was royal life. Sometimes, I wonder if I kept myself moving and busy on purpose... so I _wouldn't _have time to sit back and... smell the roses."

"Self-defense mechanism?" Ethan asked, and his smile was so subtle it looked accidental.

"Against what...?" Lucidia looked at him, eyebrow raised slightly.

"Perhaps figuring out you actually _enjoy _or _like _something?"

Lucy's cheeks tinted slightly pink, and she stared down at her hands. "I _like _plenty of things."

Ethan chuckled, and the next thing Lucidia knew, his knuckle was brushing along her cheek, wiping away what was left of the water he'd splashed on her cheek. He was using it as an excuse to touch her, and they both knew it.

"But..." and he leaned closer, moving his hand aside. "You don't like _admitting _you like things. To anyone..." And she felt the missing warmth from his finger replaced by his breath. "Not even yourself."

"And so what if I don't? That's my problem..." She retorted, though the normal edge was missing through her soft whisper. A bite to her lip barely suppressed the shudder that threatened as his lips brushed, feather-light, across her cheek. "Must you always be so... sexual about everything, Ethan?" Her back hit the ground, and she gasped, one arm wrapping around his shoulders to prevent from dropping into the water. She hadn't even noticed he had been pushing her backwards.

"It's what I am," he pulled back, looked down at her, and where she expected him to be smiling, he was giving her the most serious look she'd ever seen out of him. "If you knew who and what I was before I... met you." He shook his head. "You probably wouldn't let me near you ever again."

It was Lucidia's turn to laugh, and it ended with her shaking her head. "You seem so sure I'm scared off easily." Her eyes met his, and then a flash caught the edge of her vision, and she looked past him, towards the sky, eyebrows raising instantly. "Oh wow... meteor shower."

"Really?" Ethan turned about, maneuvering so he wouldn't end up landing on Lucidia, and ended up sitting next to her. "Wow. I haven't seen one of these since..." He paused and frowned. "Hm. Just before that gap in my memory. Like a week before I think."

"Hm. I remember hearing about them, but I usually was inside or uninterested when they happened. I've only ever seen short glimpses of them," the strawberry blonde admitted with a slight motion of her shoulders that attempted and failed at being a shrug.

Ethan chuckled and looked over at her, interest piqued at what might have been the first time someone had seen Lucidia watching something as beautiful and magical as a meteor shower. She looked as he expected, completely enraptured and sedately happy. It was a beautiful sight, the muted colors from the lights sending mysterious shadows along her face, even as her own shadowed silhouette admired the stars from its place against the wall.

Wait...

The blond man turned around, looking for a strong source of light from behind him. There wasn't one. The brightest and closest lights were... on the same wall... the shadow... was...

He jerked back around, to find Lucidia looking at him, partially concerned for his wellbeing, and partially concerned about his sanity. The shadow on the wall remained partially reclined, staring up at the sky.

Ethan made a high, tight, incoherent noise of terror somewhere in the back of his throat even as he felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. And then it moved, forming into some _thing _and leapt right at them.

"Gah look out!" was all he got out as he grabbed her and sent them both backwards. The little shadow creature missed and slid along the ground, claws sparking as it ground to a halt. It turned to look at them, blinking glowing, saffron eyes, almost as though confused, and, almost as if to confirm, it tilted its head slightly.

Lucidia and Ethan gave it the same look, standing up, both blinking and utterly puzzled.

The standoff continued for a moment, until the shadow creature gathered itself up and charged again, scuttling along the ground straight for Lucidia. She leapt easily out of the way of the clumsy attack. "Thing's gonna have to do better than _that._"

It stood back up, twitched, and turned towards her. Another pause, and then... it leapt up into the air, before disappearing in a pool of darkness that had spawned on the ground beneath it.

For a moment there was nothing but the sounds of Lucidia and Ethan's quickened breathing, and then Lucidia shrieked as the shadow appeared from the ground and grabbed her ankle, causing her to jump and stumble, before landing hard on her rump.

"Gah! Get off me you stupid thing! I don't want to go through that again!" She yelled as she began slamming her heel into the thing's head. It backed off, slightly disoriented, and she regained her feet before putting some space between her and it. It shuddered, almost as if shaking off the daze, and disappeared underground again. Lucidia's head whipped back and forth as she glared at the ground, wondering where it would appear this time.

It came from above.

"Heads!" Ethan cried and Lucy ducked, covering herself with her arms out of reflex. The creature dropped and landed with almost perfect balance on her arms, before slowly reaching back as though to strike her. The slight hesitation sent Ethan into motion, he whistled as loud as he could, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to distract it long enough for Lucy to get it off of her.

The sound echoed through the small area, off the buildings, nearly drowning out the low hiss of... _something, _and as the sound faded, Ethan opened his eyes to see the little shadow creature dissolve into a black mist, even as a completely soaked Lucidia uncurled, staring up at him, stunned. He looked away first, down, to the water-slicked, glistening ground as it dimly reflected the lights around them. Then to the fountain, which now mostly drained, gurgled and bubbled as the recirculating system tried to gather enough water to form into the water column and couldn't.

"We... we should go," Lucidia said, carefully standing up and wringing the water from her shirt. "Before... more of those things come."

Ethan just nodded, not trusting his voice for a moment.

Lucy looked back at where the shadow once was as she stepped forward, watching that single point on the ground as though she didn't believe it was actually gone. In fact, she didn't.

"M... Mari would know more... we should... see if she's busy," Ethan finally said as they reached the door. His companion nodded, her wet hair, now a rich, ruddy brown barely moving on her shoulders.

-

A/N: -coughs- Hi.


	6. Chapter 5

He sighed, looking up at his hand through the darkness of the room. No matter how hard he looked, his hand hadn't changed. It was still the same as ever. Still callused about the fingertips from guitar, and about the top of the palm for a reason he didn't quite know. Bicycling maybe?

Dissatisfied, he rolled over, kicking his feet off the edge of the bed before standing and quietly making his way to the window. He stared out, at the dim lights all about Traverse Town. Most of the residences had their lights off, signifying it being that time of the eternal night most citizens slept.

A sigh, and Ethan pressed his hand against the cool window pane, closing his eyes.

-

_Lucidia huffed as they turned back from the door to the shop in the town center. No, Mari was out and about as far as the owner knew, but he did supply them directions to a couple places she could've been. He'd been staring at the strawberry blonde the entire time, obvious curious as to why she was standing there looking all the world like a drowned rat._

_The former princess had silently walked outside, obviously irritated, reaching the steps in front of the shop and closing her eyes._

"_You know, you really can't blame him. Perhaps on our search we could stop by your little apartment thing and grab a towel so you don't look so..." He smirked as a few damp strands of her hair fell into her face from behind her ear._

"_Like a wet animal?" she growled, pushing the strands back._

"_I was thinking more along the lines of 'victim of a pool side prank'," he replied simply, chuckling as the previous hair fell back into place across her face._

_Another growl, and she tilted her head back, running fingers through her now strawberry brown locks. "Yes, well, whose fault is _that_?" Her head came back down, hair slicked back neatly, effectively keeping the offending strands out of her face for a while. Ethan felt his stomach clench. "If you hadn't pulled a damn magic trick with that water I wouldn't be..." Lucidia cocked an eyebrow at his expression. "Uh. Ethan?" She waved her hand in front of his face. "Anyone home?"_

-

He shook his head. Now why had _that _of all things surprised him? He'd been trying to think about that all night... and that had probably been the reason why he couldn't sleep now, and probably also why...

-

_A man_ _slammed his hand into the table he sat behind, light blue eyes blazing angrily. "That meteor shower! I'm telling you it's a BAD omen! The last time I saw one of those my world was destroyed!"_

"_Calm down please, sir," a voice said from the front of the large audience hall. Mari stood there, looking firm and determined. "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again, this world isn't in any sort of danger of disappearing, the Heartless can't get to its heart! The Keybearer sealed the doorway a couple years ago."_

"_What about us?!" Another man said, gripping the sides of his head, fingers mussing his cotton candy blue hair. "What are we supposed to do?! If the Heartless are back, they're a serious danger to us. I don't want to end up becoming one of them! Or WORSE."_

_A murmur ran through the crowd, people turning to discuss the man's words with their neighbors._

"_Yes, I admit that seeing one after having gone without a Heartless sighting for nearly six months is a problem, but that may just mean they're not gone like we thought they were," Mari explained quietly. "We must once again raise our guards__and stay on the lookout for these things."_

_-_

It had ended with some sort of Q and A sessions afterwards, everyone badgering he and Lucy for an account of what had happened. Most of the people were excited about his being able to call the water from the fountain, while a few remained skeptical or even suspicious of both of them. Mari had pulled them aside a few minutes later and told them the vessel Gepetto's apprentice had been working on was almost complete ahead of schedule, but the man wasn't busy and had nearly been breaking himself trying to get the thing pieced together. It would be done, they figured, within the next 'day' or two, so she asked the two of them to meet her at Gepetto's old shop and they could go over some things tomorrow.

Neither Lucy nor Ethan knew precisely what these 'things' were, but they agreed anyway. Probably just instructions on how to fly the thing, what to look out for.

They had parted after that, and now, several hours later, Ethan found himself staring out the window, wondering just what the heck they were getting themselves in to. The more he thought about it, the more he realized 'going over things' probably meant there was some trick to it. He didn't know what had prompted that realization, or even if it was an accurate one.

He sighed and turned back to the bed. He might as well keep trying to sleep, no use being exhausted starting out on a journey. The bed was uncomfortable, he wasn't tired, but he closed his eyes anyway, and after an hour of tossing and turning fell into a light sleep.

A knock to the door a while later quickly aroused him, and he stood up, making his way rather quickly for someone who had just woken up to the door. He swung it open to find Lucidia and Mari on the other side.

"How long were you planning on sleeping in, Ethan?" Lucy chided, frowning at him.

He yawned, and stretched while trying to shrug. It didn't quite work. "No one said a specific time, so I just... slept."

Lucidia huffed and rolled her eyes. Mari stifled a giggle and tried to disguise it as a cough.

He turned back from them, grabbing shoes and socks and putting them on before following them out into the hallway, running his hands through his hair to try to take the edge off of his bed head.

They arrived, seating themselves around a small, round, wooden dining table, leaving an extra chair open to Ethan's left. There was silence as they sat down, and it just bordered uncomfortable, though none of them could figure out something to say. Finally, an old wood door at the back of the home creaked open, and out came a young man, probably in his mid twenties, built wide of shoulder, holding a laminated book in his grease-stained hand. He seated himself without a word, and placed the book down on the table, flipping it open to the first plastic covered page.

"Hello there everyone," he said finally, nodding to the other three. They all nodded in return. It seemed so stiff, so formal, but Ethan couldn't figure out a way to lighten the mood. Probably because the man before them seemed so very serious. "Before we get started, do note that inter world travel is not easy, nor is it safe, especially considering the barriers the worlds have put up to protect themselves have left several unsavory creatures floating in the spaces between the worlds, and they're not happy. As such, I've taken the liberty to install weapons on the ship. Also, as the trip is likely to be a long one, I have modified the cockpit. Where normally it would only have seats as most journeys between worlds are short ones, this has fully stocked quarters for a crew of up to four people, provided said people weren't opposed to sharing a room with one of their fellows. It has been stocked with enough food and water to last the two of you about two months, any more than that, and you're going to have to procure your own provisions. Do be careful. Now..." He flipped a couple pages in the book, before turning it around to show the gathered a collection of pictures on both of the pages. "These are going to be some of the creatures you'll have to deal with. On the right are the Heartless ships. They're generally straightforward, some are slow and powerful, some are quick and don't quite hit as hard. They're all very dangerous. On the left, and for reasons neither I, Gepetto, nor King Mickey can decipher are the Nobody ships."

Ethan blinked and winced. "Nobody...?" God, he knew what that meant, it was right on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't... quite... think of it.

"Yes, Nobody ships. We all thought they'd disappeared when the Organization was defeated, but apparently the lesser Nobodies are still a problem in several places, and they still have a strong presence in Twilight Town, according to an acquaintance of mine from there."

Ethan shook his head violently. "That's not what I meant..."

"He means for you to explain to us what the hell a Nobody is," Lucy snipped from her position next to Ethan.

"Ah... I forgot there were those in this town that don't know all of the creatures," the man stood up, turning to a bookshelf behind Mari and stepping over to grab a relatively new, leather-bound book. He opened the book and showed them all a picture of a small creature that looked like it was wearing a tight white outfit, with the 'mouth' un-zippered to see out of.

Ethan choked on his own saliva at the picture, coughing violently, doubling over and folding his arms on the table. Mari hopped up almost immediately and went to get a glass of water, which he sipped from graciously as the coughing fit died down.

The nurse exchanged a look with the mechanic before they returned their gaze at Lucidia and Ethan, both pale faced and wide-eyed at the site before them. Gepetto's apprentice cleared his throat and slowly closed the book, and though the other two finally looked up, the shock didn't quite leave their countenances.

"As I was saying..." the man continued on, slowly. "Those are just some of the enemies you'll be finding, and they have terrestrial counterparts as well. You've fought a Heartless before, and though Heartless can be powerful, they're the easier of the two types to defeat.

Another thing I believe you should know is there is a warp drive installed on this ship. It can sense the frequencies of the worlds you've been to, but you must program in if you want to save the world as a destination. It's a simple process, and the instructions are written in the instruction manual in the ship, but make sure you write down the code you put in for the world so you don't forget it." He flipped several more pages through the book. "And here's the most important part. A majority of the worlds have managed to fully reinstate their barriers. By this, I mean the thing which protects them from visitors from other worlds, because as we know, people crossing worlds has a tendency to throw things out of balance. Some worlds, like Traverse Town, have weak barriers, or even none at all. However, worlds _have _been known to temporarily open their shields if they sense an inhabitant, someone that belongs there. I've installed a little device that basically will... amplify and project the _thing _about you that the worlds sense and will lower their guards for. This means, if you find a world that's traversable _to, _it's most likely your world or one with a weak shield. The only real way to figure it out is to go down there. Any questions?"

A pair of heads shook.

"One final thing. It's generally a wise idea to not tell anyone in the worlds you visit, unless they're your own, that you are from some place else. It's just to protect balance. What you're going to be doing is technically against the laws of the universe. It was never supposed to happen, and safeguards were put into place to ensure it _didn't _happen, but now that it has, you must tread carefully. Got it?"

And Lucidia and Ethan nodded their heads.

"As long as you know that, I'll show you the ship. There's still a couple tweaks I need to make, but it should only take me an hour or two, complications pending, to work out and ensure it's safe to travel. That projection emitter is really just a prototype, mostly engineered in experiments between myself and the engineers over in Disney Castle, whose findings we send to each other through Mognet," he explained as he led the group through the wooden door he'd emerged from, and down a long set of stairs. Ethan listened with interest as Lucy practically flew down the stairs, maintaining her balance surprisingly well. She wasn't interested in the technobabble, she wanted to see the mostly finished product.

"Woah..." it was the only word anyone who hadn't seen the ship before could muster. Before them floated a relatively _massive _ship, colored in a deep, metallic red with black detailing. Beneath the nose of the craft, a pair of cannons shown, with two different sets of cannons mounted to the undersides of the wings.

"I take it you like it...?" the apprentice said, smirking, his voice showing the first real emotion since he'd appeared a short while ago. Lucidia had already jogged ahead to get a closer look, but Ethan turned to the other man and nodded, grinning. "Want to hear more specifics about it?"

Ethan's grin widened. "Hell yes."

The man laughed. "Well, the basic composition is traditional of Gummi Ships... that's what these things are called..."

Near the ship, Lucidia was running her fingers over the glossy finish of the ship's paint, looking at herself in the partially transparent reflection. Mari laughed from behind her and she turned back around, looking at the nurse. "I'm... not entirely sure how to thank you..."

Mari waved her hand. "Don't. The materials to make this ship...? They've been looking for an excuse to use them for so long. You should've seen Trevor's face when I told him we'd be _actually _needing a working ship. He may act serious, but when it comes to playing with these machines, he's like a little kid." She turned back to watching the two men talk. "Seems you're boyfriend over there's a technophile as well."

Lucy looked over, catching part of the boy's conversation.

"... and these weapons! You see those two on the nose? Those are custom built FIRE Mk. II automatic cannons. They fire energy at a fully automatic rate, though they're not really powerful, they do hit a lot, and are good for guiding shots. The smaller of the cannons on the wings, those on the inside? Those are... wow. We call them the C-037 or COMETs for short. They fire pulses of energy that are magnetically attracted to Gummi material, basically, they're _homing_ lasers. And the big cannons on the outside are the M-37302, or METEOR Cannons. They don't fire very quickly, and aren't really accurate, but they hit _hard..._"

The former princess returned her gaze to Mari. "Yes well... and he's _not _my boyfriend."

Mari smirked. "So sure about that?"

Lucidia's cheeks turned the lightest shade of pink and she looked away grumbling. "... I'm pretty sure..."

The two males joined them, and for a moment there was silence in the huge underground cavern. That was until the apprentice laughed and spoke. "Well, I better get back to work on this beast. The pulse system needs another tweak and I'm going to re-calibrate the targeting system. Some other final checks, and it should be good to go like I said in about an hour ish."

"Wow. Thanks again," Ethan said, nodding at the other man, to which he was answered with the wave of a hand.

"Don't worry about it! I love building these things."

They said brief, temporary goodbyes before returning to the surface to find it drizzling the cold, wet, permeating, sort of rain that could make anyone feel like they were coming down with something, even if they weren't.

"Well, are you guys ready for the trip?" Mari asked as they watched the cold, wet weather.

Lucidia shook her head. "I wasn't expecting it to be done so soon, I barely had time to start packing, I should probably head back and finish."

"Oh god, we'll be old and gray by the time you're finished..." Ethan grumbled, rolling his eyes. Lucy punched him on the shoulder.

"Oh, and what makes you so absolutely sure of that, _Ethan_?" she growled, challenging him with her eyes.

He smirked at her. "Women can't do _anything _involving clothing in less than two hours. Hell, back in the days when my band was on the road, I'd have women getting ready to leave the morning after I'd taken them to the hotel _long _after I'd woken up."

Lucy turned bright pink. "Gods! I reiterate: does _everything _with you have to revolve around sex? I do _not _need to know you are or were some playboy."

"The One-Night Stand is God," he sniped back, smirk widening slightly.

The former princess snarled, throwing up her hands in exasperation and stalking away angrily.

"Do try not to destroy your relationship with her before you've even left. You're going to be spending a lot of time in very close quarters to each other you know," Mari commented as Lucy marched out of earshot.

"Oh. I know," Ethan replied. "But she asked for it."

-

A/N: HAHAHA. HA. Cough.


	7. Dream Intermission 2

They'd only been gone for three days, and already Ethan was bored. The cosmos was absolutely nothing interesting to look at, and he'd been spending so much time reading the instruction manuals, his eyes were sore. Again he sat in the pilot's seat of their Gummi Ship, one hand working over the keyboard in front of him, while the other held one of the instruction booklets open as he figured out how to input coordinates into the ship's auto-pilot. It was already long past the time he should've been asleep, he figured he'd been awake for close to twenty hours now, and Lucidia had retreated to her room a long time ago, giving up on her task of tinkering with the ship's internal log.

Finally, he sat back, rubbing his eyes and sighing as the computer dinged in acceptance of the coordinates. Stiffly he stood, and wandered back into the quarters of the ship, stretching his muscles out a bit as he walked. The door opened, and he barely paused to take off his shoes before diving into bed, falling asleep seconds later.

_Rain was pouring all around him as he leaned on the railing of the balcony, staring out into the black sky. No stars shone in this place, just a depressing black void that loomed overhead. He looked up slightly, and saw the moon, even through the heavy rain. Huge, orange, shaped like a heart. It was their last chance... their last chance at-_

_Feet splashed through the small puddles on the balcony, and a presence appeared next to him. Words were spoken, words he could not hear._

_Flash._

_And the presence beside him was suddenly pressed against him, hips grinding into his, mouth over his to swallow his surprised groan._

_Flash._

_She was on top of him, riding him. He stared at her body through the open black raincoat; slim and pale to the point where she glowed in the moonlight. Then the view disappeared as she leaned forward, pain shooting through him as she sank teeth into his ear. Oh god did it feel so good-_

_Flash._

_And she was clinging to his bedpost__as he took her from behind, leaning forward, running his tongue along her spine. Her back arched and her sides heaved and she was probably making a lot of noise but he couldn't hear... why could he never hear?_

_Flash._

_And she was sitting on his lap, kissing him. Her hands gripped his jaw and she pulled back... and there was blonde hair and pale skin and electric blue eyes just like-_

Ethan gasped as he jolted awake and panting, slapped his hand over his forehead. Damn it. He was sweating and sticky and uncomfortably erect. He squeezed his eyes shut, and looked over at the clock near the bed. Only four hours since he'd fallen in to bed.

Feet swung over and contact with the cold metal ground as he trudged to the bathroom; no sense making the bed any dirtier than it already was. As he walked, he tried to remember all the details of the dream, but already it was fading into nothing. All he could remember... a woman...

... Who was she...?


	8. Chapter 6

Something was wrong with the ship. Ethan couldn't tell exactly what, but the fact it he was thrown out of his bed and onto the trembling ground as a wake-up call was his first clue that no good things were happening.

Carefully, he stood up, gently making his way to the doorway, and just got it open, only to be thrown backward and on to his bed by another violent jerk of the ship.

"LUCY!" He called, as loud as he could over the rattling of the loose parts of the ship. "What's going on?!"

"ETHAN, GET IN HERE!"

He grumbled and trudged back to the door, only to get thrown into the door jamb and his knee hit the cold metal with a resounding clunk.

He grabbed the door jamb with one hand and rubbed his knee with the other before slowly and carefully making his way into the hallway, making sure to use the wall for support as the ship pitched and bucked from side to side.

The ship bucked up and went nearly vertical, forcing Ethan to cling desperately to the doorway to the cockpit. He looked up to find Lucy, one foot braced against the control panel while she pulled at the control stick with both arms, leaning back as far as she could.

Slowly, the ship went from vertical... to upside down... and then slowly looped back around again until it had evened out to flat. Ethan took the short opportunity to sprint into one of the pilot's seats and secure himself to it.

"What's going on?" he cried, only to find... they'd somehow ended up in the midst of a warzone.

"I don't know, but those Heartless ship things and the Nobody ship things are fighting and your stupid coordinates are taking us right through the middle of it!" She snarled as she jerked the controls again and the ship rolled between a group of at least a dozen ships attempting some sort of melee maneuvers with each other.

"Why don't you just shoot the ships and blow them up?" Ethan suggested, his hands grasping the arms of his chair with a white-knuckled deathgrip.

"Oh right, and draw their attention to us? Smart. Real smart," Lucidia rolled her eyes. "If I can avoid them going hostile on us for any length of time, it would be great."

As though on cue, a laser sizzled past the hull and a warning claxon went off as it skimmed over the top of a wing, scoring an indirect hit.

"I hope you have an ingenious plan to get us out of here since _you put us in this situation in the first place,_" Lucidia barked as she pulled and pushed on the control, effectively making the ship do a quick camel-back maneuver that had Ethan's stomach jumping into his throat.

"Uhh…" he looked around frantically from left to right, trying to see past the bright flashes of the battle around them, around the gigantic hulks of the Nobody and Heartless ships. "Ah! Lucy, there's a world over there!"

She turned to look at what he was looking at, cocking an eyebrow in the general direction he was now pointing toward. Surely enough, there in the distance was a rather large world, comprised mostly of a gigantic castle. "Do you think it'll let us through into that world, though?"

Ethan frowned. "I'm not sure, but it'll at least be worth a shot. Gun it!"

"Way ahead of you!" the female replied and Ethan suddenly found himself pinned against the backrest of the co-pilot's chair. The ship bucked and pitched as Lucidia navigated swiftly through the throngs of enemy ships.

And then one giant one flew right into their path. Impact warnings blared as the former princess tried her hardest to push the ship into a dive, go under the big ship. But she soon found out that wasn't going to work.

"Damn it all, I'm just going to blow it up!" she called as she pulled down all the triggers at once. A high-pitched whine filled the cabin as the ship shuddered violently and all its guns discharged. The two in the cockpit held their breaths as several differently colored beams lanced out, piercing the giant ship's hull. Nothing seemed to happen, and they careened toward it, with Lucidia still shoving at the controls, trying to maneuver their ship around it, pulling back on the throttle to slow it.

There really were no words to express the noise made as the giant black ship before them suddenly burst into multitudes of parts and pieces, chunks of the Gummi material flying off and smashing into the hull of their ship. They flew right through the middle of the explosion and the ship shook and shuddered, being buffeted in several directions at once before they finally careened through the other side, on a completely different flight path than they'd entered, the controls ripped from the princess' grasp. A moment passed, and then another as the two humans within the cockpit of the black and red Gummi Ship caught their breaths, and finally, Ethan reached over, nearly laying on Lucidia's lap as he did so, and grabbed the controls, pointing the ship back in the direction of the nearby world.

They wouldn't have much of a chance to celebrate however, as the warning claxons sounded again and the ship jolted, impact sensors reading damage over the tail end. Green eyes met blue and the two separated sharply as Lucidia regained control of the ship and hit the throttle once more, jerking the control stick around to make their opponent's aiming as difficult as possible, while Ethan went to work on the computer, readying the pulse amplifier that might just let them get into the next world. As soon as it was ready, he activated it, and spent a breathless moment waiting for the results.

Inconclusive.

His lips pressed into a thin line. What kind of result was 'inconclusive'? Either they could get into the world or they could not.

He tried again.

"What's taking so long over there, Ethan?" Lucidia asked. "The planet's getting awfully close and you haven't said yet whether or not we can even get into it."

"Inconclusive," he called in return. "I don't think the computer even knows if we can get into the world."

"Well wasn't that the reason the thing was built? Worthless piece of junk-"

"Lucidia look out!" he cried and once again the ship was found vertical as it narrowly avoided collision. "Well, I don't know what the hell inconclusive means, but I think we should probably just try. What's the harm in it?" He gripped the armrests of the seat against another violent roll.

"If we crash and survive, Ethan, so help me I will do unspeakable things to you!" Lucidia growled in return as she pushed the throttle as high as it would go. The sky around them turned into a blur, they whizzed past the outskirts of the battle utterly untouched and rocketed toward the planet. Something shined around the exterior of the planet, very lightly tinted a bluish gray color.

"That must be the shield that protects the world from outside forces."

"Well let's hope it doesn't try to keep us out."

Closer and closer they approached, but the shield around the planet didn't seem to be waning at all.

"It doesn't look like the shield's going down yet…" Lucidia commented, her voice high and tight with fear.

"Just keep going, I'm going to try hitting it with the pulse again," Ethan replied, his fingers busily working over the keys of the onboard computer.

"Hurry up please, Ethan!"

"I'm going, I'm going. I can't decide how fast the computer works!"

The world loomed ever closer and yet the shield still seemed to remain up around it.

"Go go go, please baby go!" the musician chanted desperately. The analyzing text at the bottom continued to blink.

"That's it, I'm going to-"

"Got it! Access granted! Go in!" his triumphant cry was cut short as another impact, probably from something large and heavy knocked the ship slightly off course. It was caught by the world's gravity and began spinning slowly as it careened downward.

"ETHAN I'M GOING TO KILL-"

--

"I think he's finally coming to!"

Ethan groaned and turned his head away from the obnoxious sound and the light he now found accompanying it.

"Hang on," a much gentler voice called out and he clenched his eyes shut and brought his hand up to rub them, but was stopped by a short burst of pain that had him grunting. "Don't try to move too much, I'm going to try another Cure spell."

Warm relief flooded through him, and the throbbing ceased for a short duration before starting up again, much duller than before.

He cracked a single eye open and found a pair of females hovering over him, faces a mix of relief and lingering concern.

The one with lighter colored hair and bright, beautiful emerald green eyes smiled gently at him. "Do me a favor and stay in bed for a while longer, okay? Can I get you something to drink?"

Ethan felt an eyebrow rise, but he covered it with a short shrug. "Um, water would be alright." He turned his attention to the younger, darker haired girl of the two.

"I'll go tell Cid and Leon you're awake. I think your lady friend will be happy to hear it, too!"

"Lucy… how is she?"

"She woke up yesterday, but she's still in bed, injured. She probably won't be getting up to walk around any time soon," the young woman replied, her face falling a bit.

Ethan's chest clenched. "Wh- why not?"

"She broke her leg pretty badly… We've got it all splinted and Aerith keeps administering Cure to it at least twice a day, but it's taking some time to heal completely."

The blond man sighed in relief, letting himself sink back into the soft bed and pillow provided to him. The door swung open and the sounds of two pair of feet stepping on the wooden ground broke him out of his silent reverie and he turned a bit to see who had walked in.

"Oh! You guys are back already? How is the data running going?"

"Almost done," a tall brunette man replied, holding up a disc and waving it. The blond man next to him snatched the disc out of his hand and walked toward the computer in the corner of the room. The brunette turned toward the bed where Ethan lied and an eyebrow arched up, slightly distorting the scar that ran diagonally across his face. "I see our other guest has awoken."

"Yeah," the female replied. "I was just about to go out to see if you guys were headed back to tell you. He just woke up."

"Do you think he'll be in any condition to talk anytime soon?"

Short black hair shifted back and forth as the young woman shook her head. "I'm not the judge of that, that's Aerith's department."

"Give him another day," the calm female voice echoed through the doorway as the older woman from before stepped into the room holding a tray of glasses. "Then you can question him." She set the tray down on a table before looking around the room and smiling her gentle smile. "Well, it looks like everyone is here. Let me introduce myself; my name is Aerith." She motioned to the black haired girl. "That is Yuffie. The tall, unfriendly one," and she paused to let a giggle as the mentioned man frowned. "Is Leon, and Cid is over there on the computer typing away."

"Oh ah… nice to meet you," Ethan replied. "I'm Ethan. Ethan Medy. Did you get…"

"Lucidia," a voice interrupted him and he turned to find the said former princess leaning against the headboard of the bed she was in, her bandaged leg propped up on a thick pillow.

"… Her name…" the musician trailed off lamely.

Aerith giggled. "Well, I have it now." She took a pair of glasses from the tray on the table and offered them to both the occupants of the beds before returning and handing the remaining ones out to the other occupants of the room.

"Where are we, by the way?" Ethan said after a short silence that had just begun to border on uncomfortable.

"Well, this world you crash-landed in is known as Radiant Garden. It was formerly known as Hollow Bastion," Leon explained, taking up a post leaning against the wall opposite of Ethan and crossing his arms. "Where are you from?"

"Leon…" Aerith began, but Ethan interrupted her with a quick wave of his hand.

"No, it's alright. I'm from a region called Southern Heights in a city known as New Lanceston."

"I see. And how did you come to being in this world?"

"Well… we were in Traverse Town…" he paused as an unnatural silence descended over the room. Even Cid who had been happily typing away on his computer turned to look at the younger man. "Umm… and Gepetto's apprentice built the ship. We were… looking to see if we could not find our way to our own homes."

Aerith nodded in understanding. "Well, I don't think either of you are from here… and I'm sure Leon would like to know just how you came about being here, but I'll make sure he gives you a day more to recover before you get into the really hard questions." She turned a firm look to the tall brunette man and he gave a curt nod. "So please do enjoy your rest and let me know if you need anything."

Ethan nodded in response and set his glass aside before he laid back down, his head was beginning to throb again and he figured it best to just relax until the following day. He didn't realize when he'd fallen asleep, but he did remember waking up several times during the night to unfamiliar noises outside the room he was staying in.

The next day found him awoken early in the morning by the sounds of quiet chatter in the room. His eyes slowly cracked open and he found himself staring at the rafters for a good few moments.

"I think he's awake," someone whispered from right above his head, and he thought he recognized the voice as Yuffie.

"I'll see," the reply was definitely Aerith, and a moment later he found her blocking his view of the ceiling. "Ah, so you are awake. Would you care for breakfast?"

Food actually didn't sound very good to Ethan at the moment, but his stomach rumbled in protest of his thoughts. He might not actually want anything, but apparently his body needed it. He nodded mutely as he attempted to sit up, finding it much easier now than it had the day before. Aerith stepped away to get him some food and he swung his legs out from under the bedding and onto the cold wooden floor.

"How ya feeling?" Ethan turned to the voice of the young, black-haired girl he'd come to know as Yuffie and smiled weakly.

"I've been better. But it's not as bad as it was yesterday."

Yuffie nodded in response, smiling at him before looking over to the only other bed in the room. "She hasn't woken up yet, but then, she did fall asleep after you. Leon's out doing a quick morning rounds of the castle. There hasn't been a Heartless here in a good couple months but he's gotta make sure, you know?"

Ethan nodded again.

"Be prepared when he comes back. I don't know if he's going to wait until Lucidia wakes up or not to begin the query," the young woman warned and Ethan found himself nodding again.

"Don't worry," Aerith laughed reassuringly as she reentered the room. "It probably won't be as bad as you're thinking it is. Leon may be somewhat of an imposing guy, but he's really nice. He's just concerned for the safety and balance of this world, and any others he can help."

"Can I ask you guys a question before I am on the receiving end?" Ethan asked quietly, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Sure thing!" Yuffie chirped in reply.

"Where exactly am I? I know you mentioned the name of this… world before, but I haven't figured out where I am."

"Oh, it's simple really. This is actually a wizard called Merlin's house, but we use it as a kind of waystation between the town and the castle… he's… never really home anyway. The castle's almost done being rebuilt, so we usually stay there, but when things pop up in the town we come out and stay here," the youngest female replied.

Footsteps approached the door from outside and it swung open as Leon reentered, a sword slung over his shoulder. He turned to notice that Ethan was awake, and looked back to find Lucidia still sleeping.

"I finished breakfast, Leon," Aerith replied, motioning to the tray she had set out on a table. Leon looked at the food for a moment before giving her something of a smile.

"Thank you. Has he eaten yet?" the brunette cocked his head toward the musician.

"Not yet, it just got done."

Leon nodded. "Food first, and then we get down to business."

Ethan could only nod.

Fortunately, breakfast was a quiet affair and Lucidia woke up somewhere in the middle of it to which she was happily served a portion of the meal as well, but as everything wrapped up and Aerith bustled the dishes back to the other room, apparently to be cleaned, Leon's face turned into the epitome of serious as he leaned against the wall.

"So, you say you came from Traverse Town?" He began, looking from Ethan to Lucidia and back again, scrutinizing.

Ethan nodded. "Yes. Geppetto's apprentice built us a Gummi Ship when we figured it was time to begin looking for our homes."

"And how did you end up here?"

A deep breath. "Well, I had set coordinates to a nearby world from the one we had left, there were a couple pre-set within the ship's computer that they figured would help us begin to look. We had been flying for a very long time and had both retreated to go to bed… I was woken up as we were flying through a battle… um… Lucy had already awoken…" He turned to look at his female companion.

"I'm not sure what it was either," she shrugged. "I was woken up by the emergency sirens going off – how Ethan _wasn't _I am not entirely sure, however I ran out into the cockpit to find that there was this huge battle going on outside between… well, between _what _I am not sure. But there were black ships against white ships and it kind of looked like a big game of space chess. And Ethan's coordinates… were taking us right through the middle of it. So I switched over to manual control and a second later he came out. We flew through the big battle and decided to escape it by trying to get into a world that we spotted on our way out… which, I guess, happened to be this one."

Leon nodded quietly, before turning toward the computer in the corner of the room. "Those ships… if I pull up some pictures, do you think you could recognize which ships they were?"

Lucidia and Ethan exchanged a look.

"I guess so," the musician replied and Leon began typing into the console rapidly. Before long, a selection of about twelve pictures appeared on the screen. Ethan, squinting to get a better look, stood up and approached the screen, looking them all over.

"Wow, they all kinda look like the ones that were fighting," he commented. "Ah, I recognize that big black one, though." He pointed to the one he saw. "We almost hit one of those. And a bunch of these…" He pointed to a small, white ship. "Were shooting at us just before that."

He backed up as Leon turned around and frowned deeply.

"Heartless _and _Nobodies?" Yuffie commented from between Ethan and Lucidia. "That's crazy. The Nobodies all but completely disappeared after Organization XIII did…"

Ethan felt his chest clench as she spoke the name.

"Woah… Ethan, are you alright?" He felt a hand on his shoulder and the concerned face of the ninja looking at him from in his peripheral vision.

"C… Can I ask you a question?" he gasped, his breathing suddenly shallow. "… Who are Organi- ah…" A wince as another throb of pain shot through his chest and his head all at once.

"Aerith, get a chair before he faints!" Yuffie called, but Aerith was a step ahead of her and already bringing one toward him. Both women helped the former musician into the seat and he hunched over, gently rubbing his forehead as if it seriously ailed him.

"Org…" Leon trailed off as he saw Ethan wince. "Well, look here…" he brought up a picture of what appeared to be a person in a long, black raincoat with the hood drawn over their face so it was shrouded in shadow. Both Ethan and Lucidia were suddenly at rapt attention. Ethan was trying very, very hard not to let his mouth hang open. Something about that coat reminded him of the dreams he'd been having. He was pretty sure everyone in them was wearing the same coat.

"Nobodies have a certain hierarchy. The lowest, weakest ones are Dusks and Crawlers." A picture of the familiar white-suited creature the two travelers had seen in the book appeared alongside a smaller, sickly looking creature that hunched over and crawled on two legs. "Above them are the specialized Nobodies… Snipers, Dancers, Samurai, Assassins, Gamblers, and Sorcerers." As he spoke, pictures of the higher-class Nobodies appeared onscreen. "And finally… there were _them. _The Organization. They were the highest level of Nobody, able to keep a fully human appearance, as well as control the other, lesser Nobodies." A picture of thirteen different cloaked beings appeared in a line on the screen. "Or rather, any of them could control the lesser Nobodies, but certain members had supreme control over the specialized Nobodies."

Ethan tilted his head, confused. "Alright then… if they can hold a human form… No, that's not the question I want to ask. The question I want to ask is… what _are _Nobodies… What are Heartless for that matter? No one explained it really to us, they gave us a kind of general overview and 'stay away from them', but no one really explained _what _they are."

Yuffie and Aerith exchanged a look before looking back at Leon. The man sighed. "Even though I was supposed to be asking the questions… not knowing what a Nobody or Heartless is seems to be more important because, you are correct, they are _very _dangerous. This is how it works: Heartless are after the hearts of normal people like you and me, or even just noble animals. Their ultimate goal is to take the hearts from the normal people and use the darkness within them to spawn _more _Heartless. They have minimal intelligence… only about as much as your average pack-based animal, and a single-minded drive to take hearts. Everyone has darkness in their hearts, some people more so than others. Higher concentrations of darkness tend to create larger, stronger Heartless such as Darksides or even special-looking Heartless depending on who or what was attacked. But, that is only what happens when the heart is taken from a person. What becomes of the body? The answer is the Nobodies. When a person with a strong heart is made into a Heartless, what is left of their body, their spirit gets turned into a vaguely human-shaped shell of its former self. They have no heart within them at all, and that is why you saw them attacking the Heartless who do indeed contain a warped heart within them. They possess a larger amount of intelligence than Heartless given that they are the leftover remains of humans."

"Wait, that's backward…" Lucidia interrupted and Leon shot her a glance.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are Heartless called Heartless if they actually have hearts? You said yourself that they use the darkness in the heart to make themselves, so they do have a heart. But, given that darkness is, as far as I've known, shapeless and formless, they have no bodies. On the other hand Nobodies, which actually _do _possess a body but in fact _do not _have a heart are called Nobodies… I'm saying it's backward. Heartless have hearts and Nobodies do not, whereas Nobodies have bodies and Heartless do not."

Leon blinked, surprise actually written on his face. "… I suppose you're right on that. But I didn't name these creatures this… I just call them as I have always been told to." A moment of uncomfortable silence descended before Leon took it upon himself to continue. "As I was saying… the strength of the Nobody depends entirely upon the strength of the person's heart, and I don't mean their nobility or goodness, I mean how strong their will is, how strong they were as a person whether that strength was used for good… or evil. The strongest hearts manage to keep their fully human forms, altered only slightly from the way they appeared to their worlds. They kept their ability to speak and all of their human appearance. I don't know if they retained their memories as memories are tied into the heart, but I do know they still possessed a fully human intelligence, and that was what made the Organization so dangerous. They were, for all intents and purposes, people. Except they lacked a heart, they could not feel any emotions at all and… well. Given that, as it has been proven, in order for something to exist it must have a heart, and given that the Nobodies are nothing but hollow, heartless shells of their former selves… the Nobodies do not truly exist at all. They are locked between light and darkness, struggling to find their hearts again, fighting against the forces that wanted them destroyed for they were not supposed to be there."

Ethan nodded dumbly. "So if… the Organi… urgh…" he bent over and thumped a fist on his chest. "God damn it what is wrong…?"

"Maybe you should lie down again? This was a lot of information to take in…" Leon suggested, his eyebrows only slightly drawn in concern.

"N-no. I'm fine," Ethan waved off Aerith and Yuffie's sudden advance to help him. "So if they are nothing but hollow bodies looking for their hearts, why are they so bad? And heck, as far as I could tell, they attacking the Heartless should be helpful, right? Since the Heartless are really the only threat to the general populace…"

"Therein lies the problem," Leon continued slowly, cautiously. "The Nobodies of the highest order couldn't extract the hearts of the Heartless in a time-efficient manner… as far as I could tell from the data I received, they had a limited amount of time their bodies could maintain living without a heart. What they did was unleash a huge amount of Heartless onto the worlds… being strong creatures of partial darkness themselves they could control the Heartless to an extent, and baited the Keybearer, who could efficiently and quickly extricate the hearts from the Heartless, unlock the hearts from within the darkness. Then they would gather the hearts together, and force them into a place that Xemnas…" Ethan and Lucidia both went pale and neither of them could tell why. "Called… Kingdom Hearts…"

"_I can't say it isn't strange... or an eccentric idea. And frankly, I don't think we should be rounding up hearts like cattle in this way, but... we've got to trust the Superior knows what he's doing. He wouldn't be leading us if he didn't have some intelligence."_

Ethan clutched at his head. Where did that voice come from?

"I think we should stop," Leon stated with finality, looking at the pallid forms of both Lucidia and Ethan. "Something tells me you both had a nasty run-in with the Organization and it's best not to remind you of it."

"W-wait," Ethan grunted, looking back up at the computer screen. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach, because he had a hunch… a hunch he did _not _want to be proven right. "Do… do you have any pictures or anything of the… highest order of Nobodies without their hoods up? You say they look human, right?"

Leon sighed and turned back toward the console. "Fine, I'll answer your last request." The key clicked quietly before a set of thirteen pictures appeared on the screen with a small name beneath each one.

Lucidia gasped loudly, her hands quickly covering her mouth, but Ethan couldn't tell why, because he was too busy staring at a pair of sea green eyes that stared emotionlessly back at him. His head began to spin, the sound of the chair hitting the ground as he stood up rapidly was lost to his ringing ears even as he backed up until his back hit the wall behind him heavily.

"Wait a second…" Yuffie began, squinting her dark eyes at the computer screen before looking back quickly between Lucidia and Ethan. "No way… you guys a… xene… yx…"

Ethan couldn't hear her words very well, he couldn't hear _anything _very well anymore as the darkness closed over his vision and he fell limply to the ground.

-

OKAY FINE. -sniffs- Here's another chapter. I can't promise any more any time soon but maybe one day I'll sit myself down again and force myself to write another one. So it's on a shaky hiatus (not that I needed to tell any of you that.) Read, review, please. It does help with motivation, dontchaknow.


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